BRING PEOPLE IN TO RUN BROADCASTING

The Political Committee of the Communist Party yesterday issued the following statement:

What is at issue in the proposals of the Pilkington Committee is the future development and control of the most powerful propaganda weapon of to-day. The sharp criticism levelled at commercial tele­vision for the violence and low artistic and moral standards of many of its programmes and the narrow range of subjects covered is justi­fied.

Devastating criticisms could and should also have been made of the BBC. Even more serious has been the way the BBC and ITV have acted as institutions for the support of the cold war and the capitalist system. But there is not a breath of criticism from the Pilkington Committee on this.

No radical changes will be brought about, no raising of standards . or widening of the range of subjects to be discussed, as long as these mass media remain under the tight control of representatives of the ruling class, who are determined to use them to perpetuate their standards, their way of life and their capitalist system.

Improvement depends on bringing television and sound broad­casting closer to the people, to open them to frank discussion of the great problems and issues facing the British people, and giving people the opportunity to see and hear the alternative policies for solving them.

This means the democratic control and running of television and broadcasting. The committee’s proposals fail completely to deal with this central question.

Their proposition to put the planning of commercial television programmes in the hands of the Television Authority would bring them even more under the centralized control of the capitalist class.

The Communist Party, in its evidence to the committee, made practical proposals which would enable the organizations of the people to play an important part in the running of these services and strengthen Parliamentary control over them.

It proposed that the third network should take the form of local stations run by independent local bodies. At the same time it was for curbing the profits of the commercial television companies.

The biggest barrier to the truly democratic development of tele­vision and broadcasting is the refusal to provide facilities for all parties to present their views adequately.

The three main political parties have a virtual monopoly of party political broadcasting time. The Communist Party, which is the only Party in the country that has an alternative policy for the solution of Britain’s problems, is allowed no share of the time allocated for the party political broadcasts.

The Pilkington Committee is recommending no change in this shameful arrangement, in which the major parties, with BBC approv­al, carve up the time between them.

This is a scandalous denial of democracy. It means that the air and the people are denied the right of real democratic choice.

We call upon all supporters of democracy to protest and demand equal political access, to the air. We ask every organization of the working class to discuss this matter and send in its protest to the Government without any delay.